James McClean getting death threats now

quote:McClean, 23, who came on as a substitute after 70 minutes, received the boos due to his request to wear a shirt without a poppy for last week's match against Everton.

The winger is from the Creggan estate in Derry where six people were shot by British military during Bloody Sunday in 1972.

"James will deal with it," O'Neill said of the boos. "I think it is probably to do with the issue of last week. It's a free choice in this world. James has lived with a lot of things. He's getting death threats as well now so that doesn't help."

It is understood O'Neill was referring to the incident in which 29-year-old Mancunian Codey Lachey posted images of 5.6mm bullets on McClean's Twitter timeline, while saying he "wanted him dead". On Sunday, however, Lachey - who described himself on the social network as a "6ft 3 ex-army lad" - said he no longer felt that way, in the face of a possible police investigation.

The former soldier was quoted in Sunday's Derry Journal as saying "I wanted him dead. But there's no threat from me to James McClean now, although I can't be held responsible for what other people may do."

Lachey had also sent a threat against McClean to Sinn Fein newspaper An Phoblacht.

"Too right he deserves to be shot dead," Lachey wrote, "+ body dragged past the cenotaph! I think he's a f***ing disgrace. I know I'll end up in trouble and maybe in prison over this but I'm willing to go to court, that's how strongly I feel."

Elsewhere, McClean has also been criticised by Northern Ireland international Warren Feeney, due to his decision to represent the Republic of Ireland rather than the country of his birth.

Feeney, 31, wrote in Belfast's Sunday Life that such 'cringeworthy' incidents as the poppy made him glad McClean was not an international team-mate.

re: James McClean getting death threats now (Posted on 11/18/12 at 7:12 pm to LSUCanFAN)

quote:to not do so beggars belief

Its called freedom of speech. Is it classless? Probably. But there's absolutely nothing wrong with it. The only inherently wrong thing here is the psychopath that threatened his life because of a political statement.

re: James McClean getting death threats now (Posted on 11/18/12 at 7:29 pm to LSUMJ)

quote:Freedom of speech isnt the same there as here

I'm well aware. But this is an American message board. You're not going to get any sympathy arguing that a human being can't exercise what we all believe is a natural right of man.

Regardless, in this context their laws which we equate to our "freedom of speech" are close to exactly the same. Although its arguably insensitive and classless, its well within his rights under the English common law.

re: James McClean getting death threats now (Posted on 11/18/12 at 7:47 pm to BleedPurpleGold)

McClean's actions certainly warrant criticism, obviously not death threats. Every other player in the Premier League wears the poppy. Germans, French, Irish, Americans and countless other citizens of countries formerly harassed by the British military still wear the poppy.

The poppy appeal is one of the few open displays of British pride that the country shows. The British have a very evident shame psyche in terms of nationalism. It's nice to see foreign players show respect to the citizens of the country that provides their very lucrative wellbeing. Most of them may not even donate to the charity.

This reminds me of the female high basketball player who refused to salute the American flag during the national anthem, at the onset of the War in Iraq. ESPN did a story on her, and she subsequently received all kinds of hate mail. Did she have the right to do it? Of course. Should she have thought of the families affected by the war? Of course.

The same should go for McClean, who should have found a less explosive time to display a political message.

re: James McClean getting death threats now (Posted on 11/18/12 at 8:08 pm to BleedPurpleGold)

quote:But there's absolutely nothing wrong with it.

wow you think a simple cost/benefit analysis could help this idiot out? Try and think through the financial implications to taking this decision...I think if I was this a-hole's agent I would drop the dumb cunt as a client. Seriously you might as well burn an American flag at a VFW hall... Some crackpot threatening this guy may be the least of his problems...

re: James McClean getting death threats now (Posted on 11/18/12 at 8:47 pm to BleedPurpleGold)

"If his career was VFW hall bar tender, then yeah it would be the same thing." So pissing off many of his own supporters has no long term ramifications? Perhaps I am not making myself clear, this is a self-damaging career move. Regardless of Britain's crap reputation as a colonial power pissing off your own fanbase is not good for your own bottom line.

re: James McClean getting death threats now (Posted on 11/19/12 at 12:02 am to itawambadog)

quote:I'm sure plenty of Irishmen died in the first World War.

Not very many. They were in the middle of a revolution. The Easter Rising was 1916. Those that did were mostly there through conscription, which was massively unpopular among the Irish for obvious reasons (Every single member of the Irish Parliamentary Party voted against it).

quote: I did read about some that fought in World War II for the British.

Almost exclusively for Northern Ireland. In fact, the Republic worked pretty hard to get the Nazis to smuggle guns onto the island to help fight the Brits. Officially, the entire country was neutral, so no soldier under the tricolor took up arms in the conflict.